Summer exercises for the mind

Penn-Harris-Madison students take advantage of enrichment opportunities

Penn-Harris-Madison students take advantage of enrichment opportunities

June 21, 2007|KIM KILBRIDE Tribune Staff Writer

The aerodynamics of bubbles, the physics of rocketry as well as chopsticks etiquette were among the interesting things students in Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp.'s Summer Enrichment program learned earlier this week. Some 250 high-ability third- through eighth-graders participated in one of 15 three-day classes at Discovery Middle School. In Erin Horvath's "Bubble-ology" class on Tuesday, students used three different brands of dish soap to determine which one created the largest bubbles. Using straws, they blew bubbles in puddles of soap on their desks. Jordan Rydzinski, who'll be a fourth-grader at Horizon Elementary School this fall, blew a huge 38-centimeter bubble with Joy brand dish soap. Pretty decent considering the class average for that brand of detergent was just 22 centimeters. Horvath said "Bubble-ology" was simply a fun way to introduce kids to scientific investigative techniques. Upstairs in the school library, Debbie White taught a Japanese class. Kids turned ordinary white T-shirts in colorful kimonos by decorating them with cherry blossoms and fans and origami shapes. They also learned to write their names in Japanese letters and did some simple math using Japanese numbers that White taught them. Katie Biggs, an incoming sixth-grader at Grissom Middle School, showed off her haiku about wolves. "It's really fun," she said of the class. "We learn some new things, learn about the language ... " Keely Twibell, director of gifted and talented education for P-H-M schools (and soon-to-be principal at Prairie Vista Elementary School), said students are invited to the Summer Enrichment program, which is free, except for the cost of some supplies, based on their standardized test scores or teacher recommendation.